Community Engagement Awards celebrate partnerships creating positive change

The fourth annual Community Engagement Awards celebrated community-engaged work by students, faculty and staff from across Cornell over the past year. Hosted by the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement in the Statler Hotel Ballroom, the April 22 event highlighted how sustained, reciprocal partnerships can develop student leaders while strengthening public trust and making meaningful change.

Opening the evening, Basil Safi, M.Eng. '24, executive director of the Einhorn Center, emphasized how broadly and deeply embedded community engagement has become at the university, reaching some 86 percent of undergraduate students and hundreds of faculty. "What makes the Einhorn Center and Cornell so special is that everybody's participating," he said. "Regardless of what door you walk in and what you choose to do during your time here, there's a pathway to get involved in engaged learning to make an impact on society."

Liz Millhollen '05, associate director of pre-college opportunity programs at the Einhorn Center, introduced keynote speaker Kimberly Jones, president of the Council for Opportunity in Education. Jones reflected on the role of federal initiatives such as the Higher Education Act of 1965 and TRIO programs in expanding educational opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the face of current challenges to higher education, she urged attendees to stay grounded in their purpose and to follow the advice of the late civil rights leader John Lewis to "get in good trouble" - a path she said the evening's honorees have already embraced through their work.

Following the keynote, 11 faculty, four staff members, and eight students received awards for their community-engaged projects.

Dean of Faculty and Mibs Martin Follett Professor in Human Ecology Eve De Rosa praised faculty for linking teaching and scholarship with long-term community partnerships that enrich student learning, strengthen research and advance Cornell's public mission.

One staff or faculty member from each college and school and from Student and Campus Life came to the podium to accept Community-Engaged Practice and Innovation Awards from Katherine McComas, Ph.D. '00, vice provost for engagement and land-grant affairs. This year's honorees are working with community partners in locations from Ithaca to India, including small-scale farmers, art centers, animal shelters, philanthropic organizations and schools.

Jonathan Butcher, the Joseph N. Pew Jr. Professor in Engineering in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, received the Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship in recognition of his leadership of the Tuskegee-Cornell University Biomedical Engineering Scholars (TCUBES) program, which integrates community input into engineering design. Through the partnership, Cornell and Tuskegee University students work with partners in Alabama and New York to identify health challenges and co-develop solutions ranging from HPV screening tools to technologies that improve prosthetic comfort and menstrual health. With support from the fellowship, Butcher will further embed this community-informed design model into biomedical engineering training at Cornell. Doug Kaplan '88 presented the award to Butcher.

As the evening turned toward the student awards, Ryan Lombardi, vice president of student and campus life, emphasized the transformative power of community-engaged learning, saying it helps students understand cultural experiences from multiple worldviews and act thoughtfully and with empathy. "They begin to articulate and indeed live out a set of values that will guide them long after they leave Cornell," he said. "All of tonight's student award winners exemplify these qualities."

Ana Loter '27 received the Maribel Garcia Community Spirit Award, for expanding access to leadership development for local youth through the Rotaract Youth Leadership Institute. Loter launched the program after restarting Cornell's Rotaract chapter, partnering with local schools and community organizations to help middle and high school students build confidence, practice teamwork and see themselves as leaders. The honor was conferred by Sarah Jensen '95 and Amy Melnikoff Rosenberg '95, members of the selection committee and friends of Maribel Garcia '95, in whose memory the award was established.

Safi presented the Student Employee of the Year Award to Taylor Cole '26, recognizing her service through the SUNY Empire State Service Corps at New Roots Charter School in Ithaca. A senior majoring in human development, Cole has spent the past two years supporting counselors and social workers, assisting with mediations, tutoring students and helping connect student learning with the broader community. Safi praised her calm, empathy and integrity, noting the lasting value of her mentorship and leadership.

Frank Fang '26, Jonathan Lam '27 and Zilala Mamat '26 are this year's winners of the Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Awards, which recognize undergraduates for community-engaged work addressing pressing social challenges. Fang organizes weekly volunteer trips to Second Wind Cottages in Newfield to build housing and a community center for residents transitioning out of homelessness. In partnership with Mekong NYC, Lam supports Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee communities through civic engagement and anti-deportation resources. Mamat has spent several years advocating on behalf of Uyghur communities worldwide, including youth programming, mentorship initiatives and a digital archive preserving cultural history. The awards were presented by Karen Yearwood, chief operating officer of Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County.

The evening's final recognition went to Ariela Asllani '26, recipient of the Class of 1964 John F. Kennedy Memorial Award, which honors a graduating senior preparing to launch a career in public service. A public policy major and native of Albania, Asllani has focused on migration issues, educational access and advocacy for displaced communities through initiatives including Refugee Scholars, which she founded in partnership with Ithaca Welcomes Refugees to support local students. Reflecting on her own upbringing in a low-income household with parents who had not attended college, she said, "I learned early on that talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not." Her broader service has included roles in government, law and emergency response, and she plans to pursue graduate study in refugee and forced migration studies at the University of Oxford. The award was bestowed by Katie Dealy '00, herself a former honoree and the current chair of the Class of 1964 JFK Award Board. Two finalists, Rebecca Herzberg '26 and Tae Kyu Lee '26, each received $500 honoraria in recognition of their commitment to service.

Closing the event, Provost Kavita Bala thanked the honorees, community partners and Einhorn Center staff for their work. "Cornell's community-engaged learning initiative is central to the student experience," she said, adding that these efforts are also vital to strengthening public trust in higher education. "What you are doing is critically important to our future," Bala said. "The time you are spending on this work is going to keep reaping rewards for generations to come."

Safi closed by urging attendees to share what they had learned with their networks, recognize others advancing this work and continue creating engaged learning opportunities for students. "More collective voices on this are going to make a huge difference," he said. "We want to set a standard and blueprint for engagement in higher education around the world."